What Does a Clinical Scientist Do?

Clinical Psychology is one of the "integration of science, theory and practice to understand, predict and improve people's maladjustment, lack of ability or emotional discomfort, improve people's ability to adapt to the environment and regulate themselves, and promote personal development" Subject. Clinical psychologists are mainly engaged in research, teaching, supervision, counseling, public policy, and professional studies in the areas of private clinics, hospitals, schools, enterprises, legal systems, consulting centers, government agencies, and the military. Various tasks, such as treatment, are playing an increasingly important role in social development.

Clinical Psychology Training Model

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The American psychologist Wrightner Weitmer (1867-1956) established clinical psychology in 1896. There have been problems regarding the positioning of clinical psychology and the training of practitioners. For this reason, the American Psychological Association has subsequently developed In the sixties and seventies, different and related clinical psychology training models were proposed respectively ^[1]

From August to September 1949, 73 psychologists held a 15-day meeting in Boulder, Colorado, USA, and reached a consensus on solutions to 70 problems. One of the most famous achievements is to propose a new training model of clinical psychology, which is called "Scientist-Practitioner" or "Boulder Model" in history. This model believes that the social needs of clinical psychology mainly include two aspects of psychological practice and scientific research.

Under the influence of the "Applied Scientist" training model in the United Kingdom, the American psychological community has begun to reflect on the shortcomings of the "scientist-practitioner" model which relatively ignores practice. In 1973, a conference on "levels and models of vocational training in psychology" was held in Vail, another city in Colorado, at which a new education model that favored the cultivation of practitioners rather than scientists was proposed. "Practitioner-scholar" mode or "Vail mode".

Main features

1) Reduce the proportion of research training and emphasize the cultivation of clinical practical skills.

2) Expanded the scope of clinical psychology training institutions.

3) Its entry threshold is lower than the "scientist-practice" model, but generally requires students to have more practical experience.

4) The curriculum is more focused on internship and practice.

Graduates of the "scientist-practice" model should be capable of both scientific research and therapeutic practice in theory, but this is not the case. Generally, graduates who have obtained a Ph.D. degree after 6 to 7 years do know a lot of theoretical knowledge, but they lack the ability to practice and operate. When they arrived at the internship, they did not know how to conduct and explain psychological tests, lacked empathy for patients, did not understand case formulation, and could not even speak simple psychological counseling. The "Practitioner-Scholar" model is eager to achieve success. It produces doctors of psychology in large quantities. Its graduates generally have good practical skills, but some of them cannot complete a simple treatment study, and it is even difficult to understand related research reports. .

The expansion of the "practice-scholar" model training institution has lowered the barriers to entry for clinical psychology admissions. In order to obtain more profits, independent vocational schools produce graduates in large quantities. However, the funding, faculty, and internship resources of these training institutions are not stable enough, and the quality of their graduates is not balanced, and the overall quality is declining.

In 1990, Richard M. Mcfall became the chair of Section III of the APA Clinical Psychology Branch. In his inaugural speech, he criticized the two models mentioned above and declared the science of clinical psychology in a high profile. He believed that the goal of training graduates in clinical psychology should be "clinical psychological scientist" .

The "clinical psychological scientist" model once again emphasizes the significance of scientific research, thinking that graduates should be more scientists who are oriented towards clinical problems. "This division of labor sounds logical, but it has many potential disadvantages.

Problems in the above four training models The above four training models of clinical psychology are in line with the trend of social development at that time, with different focuses. But they all have one thing in common, that is, they acknowledge that clinical psychologists should have both scientific research and clinical practice capabilities. In essence, this does not go beyond the training framework proposed by the Boulder Conference in 1949, except that some of them emphasize scientific research training and the production of scientific knowledge, while others emphasize clinical practice and the consumption of scientific knowledge.

The above four training models including the "scientist-practice" model actually have the same problem. That is, they all pursue individualism. They believe that the "healer" facing the patient is the full force of solving the problem. Without realizing this "therapist", in a sense, it is only a "translation tool" that uses the results of clinical psychology. He / she has the entire clinical psychology system behind it. With the ever-changing spectrum of contemporary human diseases and the continuous accumulation of scientific research, it is impossible for a single individual to exhaust all knowledge, and it is difficult to become a "whole person" with excellent research and practice. Considering the entire clinical psychologist as a group, it is a general trend to carry out a certain division of labor and cooperation within the group. The "evidence-based practitioner" training model emerged as the times require. It particularly emphasizes the division of labor and cooperation of clinical psychologists and group operations, separating people engaged in basic research, clinical research, and clinical practice, and letting them solve all problems together under the coordination of managers.

The Formation and Core Ideas of the Cultivation Model of Clinical Psychology

In 2005, APA established a joint working group appointed by the then chairman Ronald F. Levant and led by Carol D. Goodheart (confirmed as the 2010 APA chair), summarizing the experiences and lessons of the Clinical Psychology Branch since 1993, Drafted a document called Evidence-based Practice in Psychology. Approved by the APA Congress, it became a policy document representing the APA position and was published in the 2006 American Psychologist (APA Presidential Task Force on Evidence-based Practice, 2006). This document formally proposes the concept of evidence-based practice in psychology, advocating "following the best evidence for practice", requiring the therapist to recognize the best available research evidence in the context of patient characteristics, culture and preferences Integrate with the clinical skills of clinicians to guide specific practices in psychology. Its content mainly includes three major aspects:

1) the best evidence from the researcher;

2) the clinical skills of the therapist;

3) Patient characteristics, culture and preferences.

Figure 1 Structure of evidence-based practice in psychology

Characteristics of Evidence-based Practitioner Model in Clinical Psychology Training Model

First, treat clinical psychology as a whole, and separate researchers, healers, and managers to focus on the cultivation of tendencies, and let them perform their duties and fight in groups.

Second, clinical research is separated from basic research, mainly to cultivate the skills of researchers in clinical research.

Third, train managers with the ability of "evidence-based management".

Fourth, a special emphasis is placed on the "patient center" concept.

Fifth, in terms of curriculum, more emphasis is placed on EST education.

Figure 2 The execution process of evidence-based psychology

The training process of evidence-based practitioners in clinical psychology training mode

The training of "Evidence-based practitioners" consists of three steps:

The first step is to spread the concept of evidence-based practice.

The second step is to teach evidence-based psychotherapy.

The third step is to implement evidence-based psychotherapy.

Problems in the training model of evidence-based practitioners in clinical psychology

1) The specific training plan, steps, and evaluation standards of the "Evidence-based Practitioner" model are still under development, and need to be "Evidence-based".

2) The implementation concept of this model needs to be further popularized.

3) Most of the current clinical psychology research evidence is directed at the white middle class and is not "sensitive" to patients of different cultures.

Review the five training models of clinical psychology in the United States, the most innovative of which are the "scientist-practitioner" and "evidence-based practitioner" models. The former keenly grasped both scientific research and clinical practice in clinical psychology, and emphasized the training of clinical psychologists with both research and practical capabilities. This is a refinement of the image of a clinical psychologist, and all subsequent training models have not jumped out of the framework prescribed by it. The latter treats the entire clinical psychology as a game from the conceptual framework and specific operations, emphasizing division of labor and cooperation, and dividing the former single "scientist-practicer" into two groups of "scientist" and "practicer", allowing all clinical Psychologists work together to meet real challenges. This is a revision of the individualistic tendencies in the training of clinical psychologists, and represents the development direction of the training mode of contemporary clinical psychology.

The evolution of the American clinical psychology training model also has certain implications for the training of Chinese clinical psychology workers:

1) Training goals. At the same time, students 'basic scientific research ability and clinical skills should be cultivated. Based on this, combined with the students' interests and possible employment orientation, they should focus on developing their ability in one aspect.

2) Cultivate content. For future researchers, they should mainly cultivate their ability to conduct clinical research. On the basis of foreign clinical research, for different diseases, gradually develop effective research evidence for Chinese; for future practitioners, they should focus on training them for retrieval The ability to evaluate, evaluate, and apply research evidence in the classroom to teach them the classic best treatments that have been proven to be effective for the Chinese; for future managers, they should develop their evidence-based management skills and teach them groups Collaboration concept to create a database of research evidence and related treatment manuals, guidelines and standards suitable for Chinese people.

3) In terms of training institutions. Standardize the training institutions to ensure that they have qualifications in terms of teachers, curriculum settings, books and materials, experimental platforms, internship bases, teaching funds, etc .; expand the scope of education, not only to educate future clinical psychology practitioners, but also to use publications, The media, etc., communicate the scientific concepts and latest developments in clinical psychology to government agencies, insurance companies, and the general public.

4) Apply the "Evidence-based" concept to the training process itself. Conduct empirical research on the relationship between curriculum settings, qualification examinations, graduate research level, and clinical skills, so that the training of clinical psychologists can withstand scientific tests and proceed smoothly on the basis of scientific research evidence.

You can contact Puwei College of Psychology for more information about the application of psychology.